My Race

Adam ran his first road race a few weeks ago and did really well--second in his age group as you read a few posts back.  I am really proud of him because of the two of us, I have always been the "distance" runner of sorts.  That being said, it has been years since my last race--five to be exact.  The last road race I ran was the St. George Marathon in 2003.  How time flies.

I don't remember exactly why I did not run another race shortly after my marathon.  I was still in pretty good shape and running often, just no races.  I was teaching kindergarten and in charge of a bunch of girls at church and engaged to my tall and noteably handsome cadet.  I guess I had too many other things on my plate for the rest of that school year.  And then I got married and my whole world turned upside down.  I do know some people who have blissful and totally transition-free first years of marriage, but four and a half years later, I feel safe to say that was not the case for Adam and me.  We were happy, at times, and regretting nothing, but blissful is not a word I would use to describe our first year of marraige.

Right before we celebrated our 6 month anniversary, we were in a car accident in Idaho and I suffered a pretty major injury, i.e. breaking my neck.  After hours of surgery and weeks in the hospital, Adam and I spent the next six months of marriage living a life of recovery--halo for three months, hard collar for two and a half, narcotics, drug withdrawls, no sleep and the mental and emotional recovery as well, which in some ways was more challenging.

But it was all good because I have full use of my body and have gone on to an almost full recovery.  Since that time, in the past four years, I have lived in 5 different towns, taught several different groups of kids, done a million little things, taken on a huge home remodel project, and given birth to my two beautiful sons.

It has been a full and busy few years.  Yet, I recently decided I felt ready--ready for increased movement, ready to shed my baby weight, ready to prove that being 30 was not going to slow me down--and started running again.  And just one week after Adam ran his first road race, I ran my first race in five years--actually five years to the day.  It was only a 5k and I pushed my two blonde boys the whole way (thanks to my BOB), but it felt great to cross that finish line and know that I still can.

Happy trails.